Social media market research is just one avenue your brand can take to gain insights on your target consumers. This research can give you strong indications to the ‘how’ and ‘why’ that drives your target market’s consumer patterns, which is crucial to how you tailor your strategy.
But what is it? And how do you conduct this research?
In short, social media market research is the process of gathering quantitative and/or qualitative data from social media platforms to understand the social, consumer or market trends of your audience. This will enable you an insight into your target audiences psychographics- their fears, hopes, aspirations and how these drive their shopping behaviours.
There are a variety of ways to conduct this research,
1. Analytics 📊
For a quantitative deep dive, Instagram analytics is a great place to start when conducting market research. This will give you an indication into the general demographics of your audience, which is a solid starting point. Other analytics programs such as Facebook and Google will further this.
However, where demographics from data sources are a great starting point, they don’t provide an indication into the ‘why’- and that’s where the qualitative based research comes in through opinion pieces!
2. Story Q&A 📱
One of the best ways to learn about your audience is simply to ask them! Many people put off asking their audience directly, but directly asking them what their pain points are, their hopes and aspirations etc provide valuable insights that can tailor your content strategy and ensure your social posts provide optimum value for your audience.
Our favourite way to do this here at PGS HQ is a good old Instagram Q&A! Have boxes with topics such as ‘drop a flag of where you’re from’, ‘which generation are you?’ ‘What are your [industry] pain points’ etc!
This is not only a brilliant way to gain insight into your target audience, but also directly informs the kinds of topics you can adopt on social media.
3. Long Form Surveys 📝
Another great way to collect research on what your target audience wants is to encourage current clients and customers to fill out a survey. Here you can not only gain feedback, but also an indication into the needs and wants of your target market- which will help you both define AND attract them.
To do this, you can use platforms such as survey monkey, or integrated surveys on whichever platform you host your e-commerce business on!
Do you struggle to define your target market? Or have you done all the research, but struggle to attract them? OR, despite your best efforts, are you only attracting your ‘competitors’ to your page?
If so, then our upcoming April Masterclass ‘Define and Attract Your Target Market’ is for you! Join us on 28th April 2022 to learn how to conduct market research on a deeper level!
Book a spot here:
